"Alexander Nevsky"
Directed by Sergei Eisenstein 
108 minutes, 1938

Alexander Nevsky was a prince of Russia who 
defeated the Swedes in battle and then the 
Teutonic Knights (ancestors of Germans) on April 
5th, 1242.

There are many, many films about historical 
battles, but this film has many important 
differences. One is that it came out in 1938 
before most films. Eisenstein was a trail-blazer 
for all film internationally.

A second novelty of this film is its class line on 
war.  It is clear that the richest Russian people 
prefer to negotiate with the Teutonic Knights by 
letting them have land they have conquered and 
giving them money not to go farther. The rich 
sometimes forge themselves a more local 
identity. Meanwhile, the poor defend Russian land 
so that Russians will have land to live on. The 
rich are told that they will have to go to battle 
or face the wrath of the peasants, many of whom 
fight Germans with sticks.

Secondly the film has a good gender line, 
especially for 1242. Wimmin go to battle and one 
womyn character has a choice of suitors. Hence, we 
see that wimmin do not find themselves assigned or 
sold to mates, at least not in prosperous and 
relatively democratic Novgorod. 

Finally, the film has a brief aspect of politics 
in that the prince has to be invited by the people 
to serve as leader. He criticizes those who cannot 
unite without a strong central leader and stands 
for a Russian-wide nationalism.

Most of the film seems to be footage of energetic 
fighting, nothing complicated. The overriding 
message is one of Russian nationalism. The 
simplest of people watching the film will gather 
that attackers come from both the East and West 
and that the German attackers are the worst. The 
film stands as proof that Stalin was preparing his 
people for German attack--contrary to the lies of 
Trotskyists and Liberal historians trying to 
distort history and take away from Stalin's 
achievements. We recommend this film to the 
public.